It was a helter-skelter Friday night under the lights at Franklin’s Gardens, where Northampton beat Harlequins 33-29 in an enjoyably entertaining game. It was set-up to be a showdown between England’s two likely fly-halves, Marcus and Fin Smith, but Quins’ injury crisis in the back three meant Marcus ended up starting at full-back for the club for the first time. So he was squaring off against George Furbank, instead. It ought to be a disservice to everyone else on the pitch to frame a game that way, but the unavoidable truth is that in this sort of form Marcus Smith does have a knack of hogging everyone’s attention.
The first half included the best of Marcus Smith’s game, and the worst of it too. He was at fault for Saints’ first try. He gathered a kick to the corner that had stopped just short of touch, and decided to try to run his way out of trouble. He ended up running his right back into it instead. He shot sideways across the field like a startled rabbit looking for a lick of cover in a farm field, and he ended up being scragged right under the posts, where he was penalised for holding on to the ball. Saints’ Manny Iyogun drove his way over right after the turn-over.
And then, down the other end a few moments later, Smith made a try for his own team, with his characteristic hitch kick and a wicked step that split the Saints’ defence like a broken coconut. Smith made a fool of Tommy Freeman, who was left haring off in the wrong direction while he cut back inside him. He scored his second with another smart finish soon after, off a forward pass from Care that had looped up in the air off Freeman’s back. Smith caught it and finished with a cute little curving run into the corner.
Smith had scored two, then, and given away another. In between all that, he’d also scored a couple of conversions, and a penalty, which meant that he had 17 of Harlequins 22 points all by himself. The other five were by Jack Walker, who scored off a line-out drive after Saints conceded a penalty from the very first tackle of the match. Quins could easily have had a fourth and fifth in the first half, but for a couple of crucial interventions by Saints’ defence.
Freeman stopped one try when he wrapped Will Joseph up in a tackle and rolled him over on to his back as he dived across the line, and Curtis Langdon prevented another when he held up Lennox Anyanwu. Somewhere in among all this, Ollie Sleightholme had scored one off the back of a deft pass from Furbank, which meant Quins were only eight points up at the interval.
It’s been the best part of a year since Saints last lost here, they’re on a run of 10 straight home victories in the league. They had better in them. And they found it during the break. They came out hard right after the half, and rocked Quins back onto their line from the restart with a series of short, sharp phases down the middle of the pitch. The ball wound up with Sleightholme on the left wing, but he knocked it on and as he dived down to ground it after Nick David caught him in the head with his elbow.
David was given a yellow card, and a penalty try was given. Which made it a one point game with half an hour left to play. It took them three goes to score a try while David was off, Iyogun was held up once, and Sleightholme spilled the ball as he dived for the line. It was Sam Graham who eventually battered his way over to put his side six-points up. Which became 11 when Furbank put Sleightholme through with a wonderful off-load off the floor after he’d slipped while running down the left wing.
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Even then the fun wasn’t up. Will Porter scored for Quins as they scrambled to get back into the match, a ninth, and final try in a ring-a-ding game.